Hitherto, as a digital broadcast receiver, a construction in which an auxiliary input/output apparatus having a small display is provided separately from a display main body having a large screen and the display main body and the auxiliary input/output apparatus are connected in a wireless manner has been disclosed in JP-A-2001-2030908. According to the apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2001-2030908, the auxiliary input/output apparatus has a construction in which a touch panel is attached onto the screen, an electronic program table is displayed on the auxiliary input/output apparatus, and the operation to select a desired program or reserve the recording of the desired program is executed through the touch panel of the auxiliary input/output apparatus.
However, in a system having the two displays as disclosed in JP-A-2001-2030908, in the case where the auxiliary input/output apparatus has the construction of the touch panel, when broadcast contents, Internet contents, or the like is selected and monitored by the operation of the touch panel, the operations of two stages are necessary. That is, when the user selects desired contents, first, he enters a menu display mode or executes the operation corresponding to the operation for entering the menu display mode and, thereafter, he selects a source to be monitored from the menu. In this manner, the operations of two stages are necessary until the target reaches the desired contents.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to an input method and an input apparatus in which in the case of inputting by using a touch panel, the operation to display a menu and the operation to select a source to be monitored from the displayed menu can be executed at a time and the operability is improved.